Cheltenham Town manager Gary Johnson declared himself pleased to be cleared of any wrongdoing for his sending off against Maidstone United to save himself and the club from embarrassment.

Johnson was sent to the stand after gesturing towards the referee’s assistant in the FA Cup first round defeat but was cleared by the FA last Saturday and will now be able to take his place on the touchline for Saturday’s League Two game against Luton Town.

Read More

“I always knew there was no case to answer, it’s just whether people believe you or not and then whether you’ve got the evidence,” said Johnson.

“Fortunately Tim Bell (head of performance analyst) did a great job, he was able to home in on the situation and I presume they couldn’t see anything that was a problem that I did.

“The first thing is it’s embarrassing because you don’t want people to think you’ve lost it because your team are losing, it’s embarrassing because you have a go at players for getting sent off and leaving you short.

Gary Johnson

“Hopefully all the people that saw the incident and know about the incident will have read now that I’ve been totally vindicated that I shouldn’t have got sent off otherwise ‘no smoke without fire’ and people would think I’m going round giving the V sign to everybody.

“I’m really pleased because I didn’t want that as an embarrassment to the club.

“I stepped out of the technical area and I apologised for that. We’re going to have to get a bungee so it keeps dragging me back in!

“It was a strange situation and I did go in and see them after the game and credit to them they did listen.

“I tried to explain my situation and you get the right to appeal anyway, they gave me that, saw the video and there’s no case to answer thank you very much so it means I can keep doing the job I love doing.”

Johnson confirmed that Nigel Atangana has been ruled out of the game against Luton after aggravating his ankle while warming up in the Checkatrade Trophy tie against Newport County.